Suffering

[Horse]

How do you view suffering from a spiritual perspective? Life can get really hard and is really hard for some people. Some people have diseases which make their lives a living hell. Every moment of their life is suffering. Withdrawing from certain classes of drugs can cause a similar state of suffering. As a kid I had severe asthma and while it wasn't that bad since it wasn't perpetual suffering, I'd spend about 20% of my time struggling for my life and I remember thinking that life was some kind of hell that we all find ourselves in for some reason. I believe this is why I became so empathic and gained a strong desire to end the suffering of others. When I was around 12 I moved to a different house and my asthma disappeared (turned out I was allergic to cats) and life became a whole lot easier. I then realised that not everyone is in a perpetual state of suffering, I just was because I was sick all the time.

Some people are born with diseases that don't just go away like that though. I often wonder what its all about. Why do some people live in hell while others don't. Life is hard for everyone but there are clearly different degrees of hard. Some people have it really hard and what they endure is incomparable to what most people consider hard. When I enter a state of suffering myself (lately I've been withdrawing from benzodiazepines) its not all that bad. What makes it bad is knowing that other people are in the same boat and many people have it much worse. I can't accept that so I have to make it my life mission to end the suffering of all. It seems that by divine providence, I've been shown how to do just that. When I know that its possible, I have to wonder what the ulterior purpose of suffering is though. It seems to be the ultimate blessing in disguise. Its what purges us of our evil and ultimately redeems us and puts us on the path to God. Even if I had the power, why would I seek to end something like that? Its a paradoxical dilemma that I'm faced with.

[IsleWalker]

Barnacle--

I don't believe people have to suffer in this life, but some may have made a decision that, unless they are put in specific circumstances, they won't take on the issue(s) they came here to deal with.

Some say there are some children, for example, who come in knowing their lives will be short. It's all they needed from this life, apparently.

It is possible to "learn" lessons without major trauma or heartache or suffering. There are just as many that do live their lives and learn that way.

Sometimes I think we begin to just see the suffering, the pain, the evil being done and it seems like it is everywhere. Yes, everywhere people are learning. We have an eternity to live even though each life is short. We can't "rush" anyone's learning. It will happen when it happens.

And societies will have injustice until they figure out how not to, and disease will be until it isn't.

At first I had to just cut myself off from seeing and thinking about all this. But now, most of the time, I see it in the context of everyone learning at their own rate in their own way. It sounds trite but really isn't.

Isle - Lora

[Horse]

What about someone born into an African country and starve from the day they are born? They have no choice. They're born into suffering. I think theres a whole lot more to suffering than how you perceive it at the moment.

Originally Posted by Barnacle

What about someone born into an African country and starve from the day they are born? They have no choice. They're born into suffering. I think theres a whole lot more to suffering than how you perceive it at the moment.

I wonder about the reason for this situation. If you believe in karma and reincarnation then it can make sense, i.e. maybe their past life dictates what must be learnt in the next life? That said, I've often wondered whether someone that commits suicide gets "born" as a miscarriage.

Just because we can't see the "bigger plan/picture" doesn't mean that it may not exist i.e.not be playing out. It seems we mere mortals are not privy to accessing this but can only theorise.

[IsleWalker]

Originally Posted by Barnacle

What about someone born into an African country and starve from the day they are born? They have no choice. They're born into suffering. I think theres a whole lot more to suffering than how you perceive it at the moment.

Barnacle--I "perceive" these too. What I'm saying is that certain souls may choose to go into these situations too. They are probably much higher souls than I am to feel they could turn those negative things into learning.

I'm not saying that everyone with pain deserves it. It's looking at this life from a larger, macro frame--in the context of many lives of one soul and what they may want to accomplish. In some ways we may never be able to understand, at least consciously, what need can be fulfilled by these lives. But it is their life, their choices--that build the life. Yours too.

Isle - Lora

P.S. The idea of karma as payback, I think, is a mistake. But if you see it as simply the learning that a soul needs to do, then it makes more sense to me. They would not come back if there were nothing in a physical life that could teach them.

[peteyzen]

Hi Barnacle, read the story of siddartha (the buddha) he like you noticed the truth of suffering in the world, and you may be interested in his conclusion and his actions after. I`m not a buddhist by the way

[Xan]

As I see it, we suffer because we have forgotten who we really are. By identifying ourselves with our bodies, minds and life stories there's no real foundation for our existence so vulnerability and fear its many forms of suffering arise.

I know this because in rediscovering our universal true nature my past suffering has gradually disappeared.

Your true self has no fear, no loss, no pain and no suffering but is whole and contented always, no matter what happens in the surface world. But find out for yourself within your own being.


Xan

Welcome back Xan - so lovely to see you back here!

[Xan]

Thanks amy. I'm glad to be back in this lively community.

Xan

[Nameless]

Me too, Xan. You were missed.

Light.